Top Five Voice Actors in My Harem

We all love a good vice actor right? (Typo and it stays!) They are a huge part of any anime. Do you guys also secretly want to be voice actors?

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the blogs I read tend to go on much more about women seiyuus than men. I’m not at all complaining mind you, I’ve done my own share of gushing over the lovely ladies who voice some of my favorite characters. I just think this Friday I would like to give the gents a turn.

Some people are under the mistaken impression that voice acting is simple. That all you need is a great sounding voice and maybe some decent pronunciation and off you go. But you cannot overestimate the acting part of voice acting. A good performance can carry a show and elevated a character while a bad one can sink it. Just look at some of the horrible dubs from pas decades to see just how much impact voice acting has. You can render a great show unwatchable.

So today, I picked five talented actors who’ve not only given some great performances but have also voiced a lot of my favorite characters. In somewhat random order…

5. Junichi Suwabe

A voice actor and singer, Suwabe san has established himself as a fairly renown voice actor over the past 20 years. Starting his career out as Kouji in the classic Great Teacher Onizuka, he’s gone on to voice a ton of great characters, here are just a few:

Not to mention roles in Bleach, Danganronpa, Daily lives of High School Boys, Barakamon, Fairy Tail, Gangsta, Hellsing, Hyouka, Gundam SEED, One Piece, Prince of Tennis and I am skipping a ton.

It may not be all that clear from my list but this man can make his voice sound so commanding while remaining soft spoken. He has something imposing in his tone that makes him great for characters that are supposed to have some form of authority. Really, go see this guy’s resume. I’m willing to bet one of your faves is on there.7

4. Mamoru Miyano

This guy started his career voicing video games at the age of 7, no wonder he’s such a pro. He has also had quite a bit of success as a singer but it’s his impressive resume of anime characters that lands him on this list. All these guys are masters with huge amounts of roles to their names so I’m doing my best to narrow it down to my very favorites but it’s hard to pick, you know!

This man has a lovely deep background timber to his voice. Like an auditory aftertaste that lingers and brings a lot of depth to the sound, and yet his actual voice is light and clear enough to play younger characters. Look at this range. He seems to have done a lot of shows with Junichi, I wonder if they’re friends.

3. Nobuhiko Okamoto

A multiple Seiyuu Award winner (they may all be actually…) I feel like this guy just seems so sweet and positive. Every time I’ve seen this guy he was hyped up and cheery and just so much fun to watch. Like a sweet overgrown kid, which makes his roles that much more surprising…Here are a very few:

Haeng-dae and Shin-ah – Yona of the Dawn (I haven’t seen this yet but it’s been warmly recommended by many people I trust so I’m just going to assume I will love it)

Rin – Ao no Exorcist

Bakugou – My Hero Academia

Kazuma – Cheer Boys!

Kominato, Ryousuke – Ace of Diamond

Mikoshiba – Nozaki-kun (ok – this one kinda matches the guy)

Nishi – Haikyuu!! (I never really talk about it but Haikyuu!! is one of my all time favorite series, top 3 and Nishi istied for my favorite chara)

Takumi – Maid Sama

Mizuki – Kamissama Kiss

Saotome – Seraph of the End

Tooru – Shiki

Accelerator – A certain magical index

and embodying my current fave Karma – Assassination Classroom

He’s also been featured in March comes in like a lion, Bakuman, Welcome to the Ballroom, Daily Life of Highschool Boys, Durarara!!, Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?, Kill la Kill, Log Horizon, Food Wars, Starmyu, Tiger & Bunny.Of course like a billion more

He has this way of inserting an almost unnerving calm in his voice. He can keep his voice very light and irreverent yet sound menacing and serious. I mean Mikoshiba! I have a huge soft spot for casual sounding voice actors.

2. Takuya Eguchi

Compared to the other men on this list, Takuya is a relative newcommer having been in the business for less than a decade yet he’s managed to wrack up a few juicy roles in that time and hopefully his career is just starting out. A multitalented artist, he’s also written and launched an autobiographical manga called Eguchi Takuya no Gainen Planet, which is just adorable.

Nero – 91 Days (I really loved this performance!)

Martini – Cocktail Prince: Making Love! (making this list is the first and only time I have ever heard of this – the MAL rating is 5.82 and I’m thinking it’s probably my favorite thing in the universe!)

Maki – Ace of Diamond

Kazuya – Gosick

Yuuji – Haikyuu!!

Nagi- IDOLiSH7 (Again have not seen this but firmly belive I will love it!)

Mitsurugi – Konosuba

Shinji – Kuroko no Basuke

Hachiman – SNAFU (I just like that word so much)

William Twining – Devils and Realist

You can also hear his work in Binan Koukou, Baby Steps, D-Gray Man, Danganronpa, Darling and the Franxx, Inazuma Eleven, Ino x Boku, Gundam AGE, Ore Monogatori! of course much more.

This guy sounds…well actually he doesn’t ever really sound the same so I’m not sure how to describe it…OK let’s go another way, this guys looks like this:

Yup he’s absolutely beautiful. I almost feel sorry that we don’t get to see him while he works…

1. Daisuke Ono

All right I cheat. You already know this about me… I’ve decided to splitétie my number one among the two hosts of Dear Girl Stories and frequent collaborators, Ono and Kamiya. I just couldn’t pick between them and you will soon find out why…

Sei – Barakamon

Shunsuke – Charlotte (I actually really liked this performance)

Atsushi – Days

Shizuo – Durarara!!

Kokkuri-san – Gugure! Kokkuri-san

Joutarou – JoJo

Akira and Kurou – K

Hades – Kamigami of the Mullets

Fafnir – Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Midorima – Kuroko no Basuke

Sebastian – Black Butler

Sinbad – Magi

Yuuya – Muv-Luv

Koizumi – The Melancholy of Haruhi et al (in my opinion the best of the cast)

Aoi – Natsume Yuujinchou (one of my favorite charas even if he shows up for just one episode…)

As you can see, this man has a nice rich deep voice and tends to go for calm occasionally emotionless character or badasses! I mean how could I leave him out. I couldn’t and I didn’t!

1. Hiroshi Kamiya

The other half of my dynamic voice actor duo, Kamiya won “Best Personality” at the 3rd Seiyuu awards (among other recognition) which really intrigues me for some reason. He has been working consistently in the field since 1992, so you can just imagine how long his credits list is. Here are a few:

Mephisto – Blue Exorcist

Kou – Arakawa

Koyomi – Bakemonogatori

Ranpo – Bungou Stray Dogs

Sanada – Ace of Diamond

Izaya – Durarara!! (yup the voice actors for Shizuo and Izaya are friends…)

Shinji – Fate series

Nozomu, Mikoto and Kouji Kumeta – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

Takeda – Haikyu!!

Balder – Kamigami no Asobi

Akashi – Kuroko no Basuke

Michael – Devils and realist

Yato – Noragami

Levi – Attack on Titan (yup Levi and Erwin are friends…)

Natsume!!!! – Natsume Yuujinchou

You may also know him from Angel Beats, Beatless, Binan, Break Blade, Brothers Conflict, Digimon, Honey and Clover, Inazuma Eleven, Karneval, Macross F, Gundam 00, AGE, SEED, One Piece, Prison School, Saiki, Towa no Quon, Working!!, and just way too many to list.

Try to imagine me realizing the Natsume is voice by the same actor as Izaya, Levi and Yato!!!! I am still picking little pieces of brain off my ceiling!

So what do all these characters have in common? Certainly not their voice. This man is a vocal chameleon. And he certainly seems to know how to pick a role. This is a really interesting career and I’m going to have to keep an eye on him since he obviously chooses anime I like.

So, do you have a favorite voice actor. Or maybe just a favorite performance? Do you go out of your way for certain voice actors? Let me know who I should discover next!

61 Responses

Yeah, I naturally tend to pay more attention to the ladies, where Kana Ueda (Rin Tohsaka, Saki Miyanaga, Momo from Girls und Panzer), and Aoi Yuuki (Madoka, Takakamo Shizuno, Tsuyu) have been my top two favorites for a long time.

On the guys’ side, though, I have to give a nod to Koichi Yamadera, a phenomenally talented VA who tends to get overlooked by Western anime fans because a lot of his most notable work is in older anime and dubs of American movies. I first heard him as Jubei Kibagami in Ninja Scroll, and his other awesome anime characters include Spike in Cowboy Bebop, Togusa in Ghost in the Shell, and more recently Sukeroku in Rakugo Shinju. Outside anime he was the Japanese voice of Donald Duck for a while, played several other notable Disney roles like Beast and the Genie – have a listen to his performance of Friend Like Me – and has dubbed a ton of live action movies from Lawrence of Arabia to Austin Powers (where he played all of Mike Myers’ characters).

Ooo some sexy choices here my dear I loved seeing Mamoru on here, he stole my heart as Ichinose from uta prince sama…. oh my god. I’m rubbish with Japanese names. But loved you put the actor who plays /noya from haikyuu. I love his voice really bubbly and encouraging. I’ll have to make my own post for this hehe

Ooh, some big names for sure. I only mostly know male voice actors (since one of the big Binan Koukou jokes is that famous seiyuu voice monsters of the week as well as the student council), but can’t really pick out a seiyuu even if you paid me to. I sometimes try to guess who voiced what character and fail miserably…

I’ve already mentioned my favourite is Yuichiro Umehara, so it’s saddening to know I won’t be hearing him for a while. As for other voices, Tomoaki Maeno and Akira Ishida have been mentioned in this comment section and they’re great at doing a range of voices.

Yeah, he’s Goro in that and he had really been on the rise in the past few seasons. However, he got diagnosed with some autoimmune disease last month and subsequently put himself on indefinite hiatus, which makes the status of his future roles uncertain. (I know he was meant to be in Planet With next season, for one thing.)

So many great choices on your list and in the comments! For a couple of other names, maybe Tomoaki Maeno Tomoaki and Kenichi Suzumura? They both can pull off quite a range of characters, from the cheerful to the cold.

Daisuke Ono, all the way. One of the few voice actors I remember the name of and actively seek out anime that use him because I cannot get enough of that voice.
Great list though and I now will hopefully remember some other names.

Ooh, great list this. When I arrived at number one, I was confused: no Hisoshi Kamiya? How is this possible? I continue reading and it all makes sense… (If you’d left him off, I’d have had to say: “I’m in despair. Your lack of Hiroshi Kamiya has left me in despair!” But I was spared.)

Daisuke Ono’s great, too, though. I just love his voice, it’s sort of calming and comforting (if he plays the right roles). You should maybe watch, just for fun, Shirokuma Café. Hiroshi Kamiya plays Pengin-san, and Ono plays Llama. There are tons of cameos in this show. Miyano, for example, plays the leader of a group of porcupine idols. (If you don’t click with the gentle humour, though, the show will probably bore you.)

Artemis mentions Ishida Akira. I started remembering his name when I watched Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. Ishida’s pefromance as Yakumo was stunning – both on and off stage. While the second season was running I realised he was also voicing the talking smartpad in Classicaloid. Gave me chuckle.

Oh man…that is a range. I really am going to have to update this list sooner rather than later.
I’m a little afraid to tackle the ladies. I’ve a feeling people will really not appreciate me leaving anyone off that list

A really satisfying list, and the only problem I have with it is that it’s too short. In my book there should be some place for Akira Ishida and Takahiro Sakurai, but there’s only so many you can fit in a top 5. Unless you fit in more.

You pretty much listed all of my favorites–especially Hiroshi Kamiya. He’s voiced so many of my favorite characters, and I’ll watch just about anything if he’s in it! It always amazes me how he has such a recognizable and consistent voice, yet he still manages to make each of his characters feel feel incredibly distinct (I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that Natsume and Araragi are voiced by the same person!) As far as voice actors not on this list, the only one I can think of is Kōki Uchiyama. I think he has a great voice and I really admire his work–he plays Yuri Plisetski (Yuri!!! on ICE), Tomura Shigaraki (My Hero Academa), and Ruth (The Ancient Magus’ Bride), among many other excellent roles.

Hiroshi Kamiya is a god!
…
So much so that even if you say harem, I’d have to include him. Reading interviews from this guy make me so happy! He really nails the actor part, just as much as he does the voice! This guy is the unforgettable voice behind my favorite character ever! (Araragi of course)
The only other super obvious one, off the top of my head, is Kana Hanazawa… cus seeing her play all those innocent roles-
Then seeing her play NADEKO, and a whole bunch of sadists? It’s fantastic!
…
Kinda sad I couldn’t answer anything besides two of the most loved voices in anime… I guess I still have a long way to go!

Two on your list are on my list of fav seiyus too! ^^ Takuya Eguchi’s voice is just too sexy for words in otome games xD and Junichi Suwabe is really freakin talented – I couldn’t believe at first that he was voicing the cold Van Helsing (in CR) then transitioned to the ever flamboyant Jae-ha in Akatsuki no Yona! ♥ Also, great post! We really should appreciate more male VAs. ^_^

All incredibly talented voice actors for sure!
I think my favourite male is probably Nakata Jouji, for his deep voice that we hear a lot for villainous / badass characters – like Alucard in Hellsing. He also does that sophisticated gentleman voice for characters like Nyanta in Log Horizon.

You’re right, this list is rigged . . . but I can’t complain since these actors are total GODS. To this day, one voice that I never get tired of hearing (be it harem anime or not) is Yuuki Kaji. Eren in Attack on Titan, Shion in No.6, Satoru in From the New World, Kenma in Haikyuu!!, Katsuhira in Kiznaiver, and so many more. The guy’s got a voice like butter that makes the young boys actually sound young and the older gents very masculine. Plus, he sings.

That’s an impressive picture layout you’ve got there, too—must’ve taken a lot of time to put together!

I am fond of the voice actress who shouted “Oneesama!” all the time in A Certain Scientific Railgun, Satomi Arai. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=26718 She’s a very experienced voice actress with a huge list of roles and currently runs her own voice talent agency. She’s also married with a son, so she’s not available, but she is very attractive and accomplished.
Another voice actress I enjoy is the one who did the voice for Revy 2Hands in Black Lagoon, Megumi Toyoguchi. Lots of roles playing sexy women in anime. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=794 Lots of work in her resume and a very smoky voice. You would know her as the voice of Winry Rockbell in Full Metal Alchemist.

What a great list! Funnily enough the title of this post made me think this was going in another direction but it has inspired an idea of my own for an anime tag that I think will be fun and want to do and share with the ani-blogging community!